TELEVISION REVIEW; For a Vegas Cat Pack, Life Is a Cabaret

Granted, Roy Horn, the showman, is still recovering from the tiger mauling he suffered last October. His Las Vegas show with Siegfried Fischbacher has closed.

And granted, Mr. Horn appears glittery and spry on ''Father of the Pride,'' the animated comedy that begins tonight on NBC. Here the Siegfried & Roy show is still up and selling out, as in days of old.

This disjunction filled the hearts of some early critics with righteous indignation.

But why? What are, in fact, the ethics of generating, through ''Shrek''-like computer images, a lively and even fanciful version of a person who in real life is unwell and then using that character, voiced by someone else, in a sitcom?

While we wait for a very modern ethics panel to convene and render judgment, let's just enjoy the show. ''Father of the Pride,'' the story of a group of jungle animals who live in Siegfried & Roy's Las Vegas jungle habitat, is a delight -- fast, witty and above all showy. Under cover of a prime-time cartoon, its creator, Jeffrey Katzenberg, evidently intends to make an old-fashioned extravaganza, a cartoon cabaret as risqué, corny and mischievous as Las Vegas itself.

First off there's the spare-no-expense production. Each show is said to cost $2 million and take nine months to produce. In leading roles are the pricey voices of John Goodman, Cheryl Hines, Orlando Jones and (at 82) Carl Reiner. Guest stars include Eddie Murphy, Lisa Kudrow, Andy Richter, Danny DeVito and (at nearly 70) Garry Marshall. The old-timers sound like they're having a ball. (Mr. Reiner's character gets lines that suit him: ''Always make sure your profile is to the C-camera.'')

And then there's the ostentatious Vegas deal-making. The MGM Mirage hotel, onetime home to Siegfried & Roy, gets airtime, and no doubt Mr. Horn -- who was also in on the deal -- would like to see this show go on. The Strip looks exactly like it's supposed to look these days: a good place to take less shockable kids, with boozy fun for the wives, pervasive bookmaking and geezers on the sidelines still cracking jokes about broads.

Mr. Goodman plays Larry, a workaday show cat who's trying to follow in the footsteps of his father-in-law, Sarmoti (Mr. Reiner), Siegfried & Roy's former star. Larry's wife, Kate (Ms. Hines, of ''Curb Your Enthusiasm,'' gets a chance to beseech another Larry) is a sweetheart of a lioness who, on tonight's episode, is trying to cheer up Foo-Lin (Ms. Kudrow), her depressive panda friend. Foo-Lin finally meets a promising panda import named Nelson -- ''Bon Bon? That's my slave name,'' Nelson (Mr. Richter) tells Larry, who asks -- but he falls for Kate. (Tired of being told he's cute, Nelson revels in Kate's compliment that he has ''WASP-y good looks, like James Spader.'')

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All this goes down easy. It's funny, and, if it makes you laugh, just let it.

'Dog the Bounty Hunter'

A&E, tonight at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central

A bad time, but an exciting one, is available tonight on ''Dog the Bounty Hunter'' on A&E. This is Duane Chapman's show, a Hawaii-based reality series about the metal-head fugitive-finder aka Dog who struts, lies, and pushes people around in the name of catching guys who jump bail. Watching the hoodlum Dog --broken-nosed, tattooed, in a mullet and mesh tank top -- handcuff bad guys is a twist that makes the show worth watching. At least for an episode or two.

''My dad has a way with criminals,'' Dog's son, Leland, says. Dog's first choice of profession, after all, was running guns for a motorcycle gang; after a stint in prison for murder, he went straight -- sort of. Now he walks around like Rambo, armed with nothing but attitude and a knack for deceit to bag his game. (The hunting metaphor pervades this life, which Dog explains with maxims like, ''a cur dog can whip a pit bull in his own yard.'')

The series is a bargain episodic drama, bound to be outproduced by HBO's coming ''Family Bonds,'' another reality show about bounty hunting, but this one gives a close and dirty look at Dog's fast-moving world, giving enough time to his home life for easy irony.